Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein Essay

Among the definitions of a monster in The New Oxford American Dictionary, an inhumanly cruel or wicked person is particularly interesting as it uses the word person. After all, a person is a human being. Also as defined in The New Oxford American Dictionary, human is being susceptible to weakness as well as possessing qualities of kindness and sensitivity. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the dark story of a brilliant scientist who creates life from human parts, prompts the reader to decide if Dr. Victor Frankenstein's creation is a monster, or if it is a human. One can’t help but feel for the creature repeatedly referred to as a monster. He has not been trained by his creator in the art of living, but has to figure it out on his own. There is a hint of nature versus nurture as if Victor is raising a child. Victor, his creator, is like a parent who fails to help his child grow. Horrified by the monster he has created, he rejects it which is more than the creature can stand. The monster makes tragic mistakes in the pursuit of …show more content…
As the novel unravels, the monster becomes more human like and the creator becomes more monster like until the two become interestingly similar. Both feel the same disgust in themselves when they share their feelings on the monster’s creation. Victor says, “I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly made. (96)” The monster describes himself as “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be turned at , and kicked, and trampled on. (240)” The creature exhibits true human emotions of misery and suffering as a result of his abandonment by his very creator. He did not ask to be created, but now that he is, it is inhumane to leave him to his own devices. The monster even shows remorse when he weeps over Victor’s body at his death and then takes his own life. One can make the argument as to which of these is the true monster and which acts more